The first documented New Year’s Resolutions are attributed to the Babylonians, whose culture dates back thousands of years. It was an idea that has withstood the test of time, but — as Hamlet observed — it’s a custom more often honored in the breach than in the observance. Here’s one to consider, nevertheless, courtesy of […]
2019: International Year of the Periodic Table
Elegant and seductive, the periodic table may be the bane of chemistry students everywhere. Impeccably organized, it lists all the known elements in order of increasing atomic number. At the same time, it fiendishly — as any high school chemistry student will attest — arranges them in rows and columns that emphasize common structures and […]
STEM (not part of a plant)
STEM is an acronym for the academic disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Largely replacing the “Three R’s,” its origin dates to 1991, when the Center for the Advancement of Hispanics in Science and Engineering Education launched a program for students in Washington, DC. Ten years later, the term achieved permanence when it was […]
